Sport Pilot

[cerich]

Starting ground school for my PPL in March.......yeah!!! Any suggestions on how soon during this I should start flight school?

Any ideas on how to cut costs?

Yeah, pay the extra ten bucks an hour for an experienced instructor, not a kid building hours. You'll spend less time in the air learning what an experienced instructor will be able to teach you more effectivly.

Prepare for your lessons, review each and ever thing you are going to do in the air in your head and with the instructor on the ground first, don't let them introduce new skills in the air, that plane is expensive as a classroom. Get good debriefs so you don't do the same mistake over and over, they will tell you in the air but then you go onto the next thing and may not remember you did it wrong last time until you go to do it again.

Flight schools REALLY like renting the newest and most expensive aircraft they have, they need to cover the monthly nut. Believe it or not you can learn just as well in a Cessna 152 as a new 172 or a Cirrus SR20. Some folks want to learn in a modern plane with a glass cockpit because that is the future. Don't bother, each aircraft that actually has a glass cockpit requires quite a few hours learning the glass, even with the same avionics the implemtation is different between different aircraft. Worry about that after you have your licence and you see what you want to fly. You want to learn "stick and rudder" on your private, good judgement, weather, airspace and how to walk away from crashing, leave the nintendo aspects to latter. If you learn to fly behind a glass cockpit you'll find yourself in a jam when all that modern stuff stops working and you need to fly the plane. It's too easy to get used to.


Stick with the same plane, don't jump between different aircraft types! Even a old 150 HP 172 and a new 180 hp 172 SP fly quite different. The more time in one plane the better you'll fly that plane. They all fly slightly different, even same year same everything...

Fly 3 times a week while doing the course, less than that and you end up re-learning things and that takes time. While the average PP is done in 65 hours or so, 40 is what the FAA requires, if you fly 3 times aweek you have abetter chance of doing it with closer to the 40 than the 65 or higher.

Don't get caught up in a low time solo, just learn as much as you can each time you fly. The stress of being set free to solo sometimes adds hours to training. Your instructor will let you know...

Hows that?

 

[Bill51]

Ok guys what's the difference between private pilot and sport pilot? and would I be able to fly at night with either one license?

No, you can not fly at night with a sport pilot’s license. Here’s a good summary of the sport pilot limitations.

http://www.sportpilot.org/learn/final_rule_synopsis.html

The advantages to getting a sport pilot’s license is you can get the license for about half the cost in half the time of a private license and if you’re not sure you can pass an FAA physical but you’re healthy enough to drive you can fly as a sport pilot.

 

[Bill51]

Yeah, pay the extra ten bucks an hour for an experienced instructor, not a kid building hours. You'll spend less time in the air learning what an experienced instructor will be able to teach you more effectivly.

Many times you can get a great experienced instructor independently for less than what many schools charge for an hour building young instructor after they tack on their markup.

 

[cerich]

Not only that, for what is is worth most Private Pilots that don't also get their instrument rating let their night currency fall to the side. Truth is being a Private Pilot with VFR (Visual Flight Rules) only doesn't really make flying at night comfortable for many...

I like it personally but sure feel "out of sorts" if I don't do it often.

 

[cerich]

Many times you can get a great experienced instructor independently for less than what many schools charge for an hour building young instructor after they tack on their markup.

excellent point! Here's a good starting point to find a experienced instructor

http://www.nafinet.org/

we need something like that for diving...

 

[Dariuszpl]

Thanks to all! I will do more research on those websites.

 

[Codyjp]

Don't bother with the recreational pilot rating. Last i read there were only 4 of those in the whole country. it is much to restrictive and limiting. you can technically save a few hours during your training but nobody can finish their training in the minumum anyway. Do either the PPL or sport lic.

dito on the independent intructor idea. that is a much better deal than a flight school with staff instructors. try AOPA or your local flight club to find on.

 

[ShakaZulu]

Wow, good info, thanks.

 

[Bill51]

One more suggestion to anyone starting to fly or contemplating learning to fly is to join AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association). They are the aviation worlds equivalent of DAN and many other go to groups. For $39/year you get either their Pilot or Flight Training magazine, weekly email updates on what’s happening in the aviation world, access to great weather and flight planning tools, a searchable database of aviation articles from the past 20 years, assistance with medical certification issues, and they are the group fighting to keep the government from interfering in general aviation any more than they already do. They can even help you find a mentor in your area to help you with your flight training.

http://www.aopa.org/

I don’t know for sure if it works the other way, but over the years I’ve found that pilots make the easiest to teach scuba students. They already understand equalizing ears, effects of pressure, navigation, and how to think and operate in 3 dimensions.

 

[Codyjp]

...
I don’t know for sure if it works the other way, but over the years I’ve found that pilots make the easiest to teach scuba students. They already understand equalizing ears, effects of pressure, navigation, and how to think and operate in 3 dimensions.

As a full time flight instructor I have found that pilots are usually interested in scuba, photography, sailing/boating, and skydiving. I think all of these activities allow people to be very creative but also requires discipline as well. Also cops/law enforcement make great pilots.